What's On

It's been a few months since the last blog and a busy period - I've been producing a lot of new work and it's been an interesting process switching between different media.  I'm currently editing the video that I began shooting in May and it should be completed soon - next month twelve stills from it will be exhibited as part of this year's Photomonth festival.  I've also begun looking through my photographic work since 1997 and selecting images for publication.  I was inspired by a friend who had produced a book but  it also seemed like a good idea to gather images together and see what connections there were.  It's surprising in some ways to see how consistent the interests and explorations of themes have been even when the execution and style has become quite different.  The first proof has come back for editing and I hope the final book will be ready next month.   l-r (c) Mandy Williams 1997/2010; (c) Mandy Williams 2010
October is looking busy with a couple of other shows in London and an artists open studio event. One of the exhibitions is at Viewfinder, a photographic gallery that was based in Greenwich but recently relocated to Brixton. It's a 3 person show called Home which was curated by Louise Forrester and I'll be exhibiting with Bill Jackson and Marysia Lachowicz. This is the first time I'll have shown this work, which is black and white infra-red photography inspired by the JG Ballard story, The Enormous Space, and the film, Home, written and directed by Richard Curson-Smith. It's less about horror though and more to do with exploring the boundaries between retreat, refuge and withdrawal.  The second show is the annual exhibition organised by London Independent Photography. This year the selectors were Paul Ellis from Photofusion and Lucinda Chua from Proud Galleries and I have two works in the show. The exhibition will be at the Strand Gallery.

Our open studio weekend will be a great opportunity to meet with other artists in the building and see different work. I'm really pleased it's been organised and hope it will become an annual event. It was about 3 years ago that they ran the last one and on that visit I thought it was a fantastic location, with studios looking out over the river - I didn't know then that I would be in one of them!  Far away from London, but also in October, MONA Detroit will be exhibiting an extended version of their Facebook show with many more artists and I'm happy to be included a second time.

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Bite-size

Since the group exhibition at House Gallery in March I've been developing new video work. I began shooting in early May and hope to be finished by the end of June - most of it is taking place in London. I'm excited by the project - which includes several of my favourite recurring themes - and also to be working with video again.  I feel like I've captured some good stills from the footage and will plan to show those later this year.  I'm hoping that the video will be completely edited by the end of July. The initial idea was to maybe show it with the photographs for the Viewfinder Gallery show, but it's developing a separate identity as the project gets more advanced. (c) Mandy Willliams (2003) Another video still - this time from Filler (2003) - was recently requested for an exhibition called The Facebook Show at the Museum of New Art, Detroit.  The Director, artist Jef Bourgeau, contacted artists and those working in the arts to contribute their Facebook profile to the exhibition.  There are over 100 artists included - many whose work I particularly like including photographers Vik Muniz, Catherine Opie and Larry Clark.  The show opens Saturday 19th June - I wish I could be there in person.

More locally I was part of a large exhibition of women artists at the Bankside Gallery in April organised by SLWA.  The gallery is on the river near Tate Modern, so a great location, and there was a fantastic crowd for the opening night and some interesting work on display. Linda, who I've shown with many times, was also exhibiting along with other local artist friends. I had House #6 selected for the show.

In the last two months I've had photographic work featured in a couple of magazines - some new images in Flip (the newly relaunched magazine for London Independent Photography) and work from 'Re-Collect' in London-based magazine, the Transmitter, which ran a series of artists' profiles.

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New Now

Our group show, Suspended, opened this Wednesday at House Gallery, London and runs until the 16 March.  The four of us only see each other's work completed when the show is hung, but once again the ideas and execution complement one another. This time - our third shared project - there is audio work, ceramic installation, painting and photography. The individual narratives capture a particular moment in time that accumulatively suggest states of loss and estrangement.  I have photography in the exhibition but also an audio installation. It was fun to be mixing sound again and good to be creating unfamiliar work, trying something new.

(c) Mandy Williams, 2010

Today is the last day of the Saatchi 10 show in Detroit. The show was consecutively shown at two different MONA venues and it was good to hear that both opening nights attracted large crowds. Closer to home, following on from the show at the London Art Fair, Bearspace have just opened Print Now (Part 2) at their Deptford Gallery. The show looks really good, seems larger than the first installation, and it is great to see so many prints have sold.

Installation detail MONA, Detroit

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Current

Thought I'd quickly post up some info before the end of 2009.  It's been a really interesting couple of months since the last two shows.  In October I was very surprised to find out I'd been selected as one of the top ten artists of the week on Saatchi Online. What made it particularly good was the curator who made the selection, Charlotte Bonham-Carter, works at the ICA, a place that I've always loved and she'd worked on their exhibition about concrete poetry, Poor Old Tired Horse, which I'd seen and really enjoyed. The strangest thing was that amongst the 10 artists was someone that I knew and have worked with in the past.  Jef Bourgeau is an artist and director of the artist-run museum MONA in Detroit. Back in 2002 I had a video screened there during their video festival and at the end of last year we'd got back in contact. Jef decided he would get in touch with the other artists and invite them to show at MONA and this is now going to happen in February.  I'll be showing one work which is an adaption of a piece recently shown at the Jago Gallery in East London. Here is a link to the show: http://www.detroitmona.com/Exhibits/2010.html

(c) Mandy Williams, 2009

Have been going down to the studio and have ideas for the group show in March. If it works out I'll be showing medium-format photography with an installation piece - lots to get done to make it happen. It's still connected to the theme of home but off on a slightly different tangent. The four of us will be meeting at the venue in January - it will be good to catch up and hear everyone's plans.

Also in January, I'll have work at the London Art Fair as part of Arts Projects . It's a new print from the 'Re-Collect' series - one that hasn't been exhibited or published before. Very happy to have work selected for this - it's part of a show organised by BEARSPACE gallery called 'Print Now'.  Looking forward to 2010!

(c) Mandy Williams, 2009

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Fresh

Last night was the opening of Photomonth and the private view for our group show, Inter, at Jago Gallery, Redchurch Street. The 4 of us - Linda, Dolores, pi and I - are all showing new work and it's hard to believe it's 18 months since we last worked together. I like what each of them have brought to the show. It's about place as memory, how social or domestic environment is shaped by its physical and emotional interactions.  I've produced a series of small paper houses, each with a story to tell. It draws on an idea I had a while ago, but takes it further. It's quite different work to what I've been showing lately but so far the reaction has been positive.  The show will be running until 2 November.

Down in SE London, I've currently got work in the dna show, Alchemy, which is part of Deptford X and mid October there's the London Independent Photography exhibition. It's an annual event and the work is selected externally.  I'm happy to have had 3 works selected from the 'Re-Collect' series for this and am looking forward to seeing the other work in the exhibition. Here's a link to the exhibition on their website: http://www.londonphotography.org.uk/exhibitions/LIP21Annual/ There are a couple of other shows on the horizon too so a busy time ahead - both continue the Home theme. The first one will be with Linda, Dolores and pi - very different work from Inter - more photo-sculptural and installation. The gallery has a really good lay-out, so it'll be interesting to see how the work develops. The second exhibition, scheduled for later next year, is with 3 other photographers - I like the look of their work and it'll be good to show in this space as the curator seems really well organised and I've liked the focus of their previous exhibitions. I'll post up more info about it nearer the time ...

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More News

Since the last blog I've been working in the studio on a number of different ideas - one of which will be part of the group show for Photomonth during October.  Have also been extending ideas for the Memento Mori series and more general ideas on themes of Home and Memory. It's been great going down there and the end of August/beginning of September will be an intensive period.There was an arts festival in July near to where I live so I participated in the Visual Arts weekend - was good to meet the other artists and also to show new work for the first time and get positive feedback. Some photographs from the same series were recently published in the London Independent Photography Magazine's 'Collections' issue. I'm feeling encouraged to continue building on this work.

All images (c) Mandy Williams, 2009

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Taster

Today I took over a new studio. Having been used to working from home this is an exciting change for me.  The building is nearby and has over 40 studios - mine is small, but with great natural light and views.

 
A few essentials got moved in today but not too much - it's going to be a place for experimenting and trying new things and I'll need all the space there is.

Have been framing some work for a group show in Hull - three photographs will be going into a text based exhibition next month which has been curated to coincide with the Humberside Literature Festival.

(c) Mandy Williams, 2008

It's good to be showing new work and it'll be interesting to see what else is in the show. I'm also working with Linda, pi and Dolores on a show for the autumn - it's a different venue to the one we had originally planned. We're now in a space in East London which we'll have for a whole month, and we've postponed showing in the other gallery in South London until early 2010. Both shows will be mainly photography but with 3D work as well. Lots of other ideas being talked about - more to follow ...

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Small bites

A small update. It's been a busy start to 2009 - more photography and more project ideas. In early January I was contacted by the director of a gallery in west London and offered representation which was a nice surprise. They had seen some of my work on the South London Women Artists website. It's not an exclusive contract which appeals right now and they seem to be friendly and proactive in how they run their business so it will be interesting to see what happens.

Linda, Dolores, pi and myself have also been meeting up and working on ideas for a group exhibition this autumn as well as some other projects. We are combining our interests in photography, sculpture and installation. We were pleased to have a positive response to our proposal from a gallery that we had contacted and it's an interesting space. We plan to create new work in response to the space as we did with Forensic.

Here's an installation shot from Forensic which was in a massive warehouse in South London.

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The latest now

Welcome to the news blog - a tiny look at what's coming up as well as a small review of recent events. These posts are likely to be random depending on what's new and blog-worthy, so if it's quiet for a while, have a look at the web-site instead - www.mandywilliams.com.
The last week has been interesting. First of all I found out on Saturday that a photograph of mine had been published in the Guardian Weekend magazine. The In Pictures section had asked for images of Twins, and I had one which I'd taken some years ago for an exhibition. Alex and Alan da Silva were identical twins, but I couldn't help looking for things that made them physically different from one another.

(c) Mandy Williams
There are identical bar codes of blood, teeth, hair at the top of the photo - at the time the image was taken it was thought that identical twins had the same DNA, now apparently there can be slight variations.
Then on Monday night an exchange of emails from London to Vancouver Island revealed that I had two photographs in the Comox Vallery Art Gallery's permanent collection. Found out just by chance - they'd been there quite some time following a group exhibition curated by Third Avenue Gallery. I never made it to Comox but it's supposed to be a great place. The curator is originally from Brixton - once again, I'm reminded it's a small world.
On Friday night there was another interesting meeting in town with Linda, Dolores and pi to discuss some collaborative projects - lots of research is needed. We worked together on the Forensic exhibition in March which Linda curated. It was a great show and a fantastic space, but pretty much under the radar. We've now come back together again with ideas for future work.

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